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Structure of a mutant of tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase with enhanced catalytic properties

Abstract

One surprising outcome of applying the techniques of protein engineering to the enzyme tyrosyl-transfer RNA synthetase was that the enzyme's activity could actually be increased by a specific sequence change1. In particular, altering residue threonine 51 to a proline (mutant TP51) increased the enzyme's affinity for tyrosyl adenylate complexes2. The non-additive effect of combining the TP51 mutation with a second sequence alteration (histidine 48 to a glycine)3 suggested that the effect of the TP51 change might be mediated by a structural change involving the peptide backbone1,3. To address the question of the mechanism by which the TP51 change increases the activity of tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase we have determined the structure of the mutant enzyme. We find the change has a purely local effect on the structure of the enzyme, and conclude that the increased activity of the TP51 mutant probably results from the replacement of the polar threonine residue by a non-polar group: in the wild-type enzyme substrate binding is disfavoured by the displacement of solvent from the vicinity of threonine 51. This unfavourable effect is absent in the TP51 mutant.

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Brown, K., Brick, P. & Blow, D. Structure of a mutant of tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase with enhanced catalytic properties. Nature 326, 416–418 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/326416a0

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